For Want of a Nail
by ffw23
Summary: There is no Harry Potter, but instead there is Rose Potter. For the most part her story is the same as that of Harry, until her 4th year, where she finds love. Written from the perspective of Hermione as she tries to help Rose through her the triwizard tournament. Will be fem!Harry x Hermione, femslash. Starts in 4th year.


AN: Just a random idea that came to me; I don't think anyone has done this before. I want to use this to test out the interest you might have in this story, so please do review. I will make this a multi-chapter work if feedback is positive and I have the time.

Fanfiction pet peeve of the chapter: One thing that I can find even among some of the better fanfics is a restating of canon. You all how the Goblet of Fire works, so why should I explain it when you are just going to be bored with it. So I choose to start right in the action, and in canon scenes, I will try to write from a different perspective.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, duh. Do I even have to write this?

A piece of paper floated down into an outstretched wrinkled hand. Stern eyes stared through half-moon spectacles at the unexpected message written on the charred scrap of parchment. All the eyes in the hall were fixed on the headmaster as prepared to read the unexpected message.

"Rose Potter!" Dumbledore's booming voice carried through the hall and all eyes moved from Dumbledore to her best friend. As Hermione looked at her she could see surprise, confusion, and even a little fear evident on her face. Rose looked around the hall wildly before meeting Hermione's gaze with a look as though pleading for an answer, though Hermione had none.

"What's going on?" Rose mouthed to Hermione, as the entire hall had fallen silent. Hermione had no idea what to say, as even though she normally had an answer, now she came up blank.

"Rose Potter!" Dumbledore called once again. It just now started sinking in to Rose and Hermione that Rose might have to compete in the Triwizard Tournament.

"I think you have to go with the other champions," Hermione whispered back to Rose. Rose was still in a state of shock that her name was called as she got up and walked the length of the hall to the room where the other champions already were. The noise level in the hall grew steadily as the whispers started to fly as Rose walked by. By the time Rose had left the room, the volume in the room was at a deafening roar.

"Quiet!" Dumbledore called. "Now that the champions have been chosen - even with some irregularities - the Halloween feast is now concluded. Please return to your houses or to your school housing if you are from Durmstrang or Beauxbatons."

As they were getting up to leave the feast, Neville turned to Hermione and said, "Do you think Rose put her name in without telling us?" Hermione stopped; the thought that Rose entered had not even crossed her mind. Rose had shared her intense hatred of her fame, and putting her name in the goblet would be completely opposed to that. Neville however wasn't quite as close to her, so she could excuse his blunder.

"No way," Hermione said. "Trust me, Rose wouldn't put her name in the goblet for all the galleons in the world."

They continued up to the Gryffindor tower in a subdued mood, and entering through the portrait hole they were directly behind Ron Weasley and Seamus Finnigan. She overheard Seamus talking to Ron, saying "I really wonder how she did it. I'm still really pissed that she has to be the center of attention all the time, but I have to give her some props. Even your brothers couldn't get in; I'm surprised that bitch figured out how to do it"

Hermione struggle to hold her tongue and stop herself from lashing out at her idiotic housemates. Neville put a hand on her shoulder to stop her and said, "It's not worth it; nothing we say will change their opinions, so let's just leave it." Letting out a deep sigh of exasperation, Hermione sat herself down on a small couch near the corner of the room to wait for Rose. Surprisingly, the common room was almost full and everywhere else was full. "I guess everyone else wants to talk to Rose to ask her about the tournament. She's not going to like this at all," Hermione thought as Neville sat beside her. She resigned herself to reading one of her favorite books - The Lord of the Rings - until Rose came back to the common room.

And so the minutes ticked by, and soon the minutes turned into an hour, and then two as Hermione waited for her friend. By now, everyone else had left the common room, and Neville had just now left to go up to bed, telling Hermione to give Rose his best regards for when Rose came back. Hermione was now officially worried about her best friend. "What could be keeping her so long?" Hermione mused to herself. Not content to just sit and wait, Hermione decided to go scour the castle for Rose. Sadly, Rose kept the Marauder's Map on her at all times, and she didn't feel like it would be right to use her father's cloak without Rose's permission, so Hermione would just have to be stealthy in her search.

As she left through the portrait hole and looked around, she immediately saw Rose sitting up against the wall with a stoic look on her face. "Rose!" Hermione called as she walked over and sat down next to her. "Are you okay?" Hermione asked, her voice full of worry.

"I'm fine. I just waited out here for everyone to go up to bed. Sorry for making you worry, Hermione," Rose said with a even tone. "I - I just couldn't face everyone right now." Rose choked out the last part of her sentence. Her calm mask fell away as the sadness showed through and she started to cry a little. "I just want to be normal for once. Every year there is something I have to face, and I don't know how much more I can take. I thought that when I came to Hogwarts I could just be another new student, but I guess it's too late for that." she said with a few tears starting to run down her face. Hermione just embraced her friend, unable to say anything to console her.

"I don't want to be ungrateful, I mean a lot of people want to be famous, but every time someone calls me the girl who lived, it make me think of my parents and how I don't even remember them. And now this happens on Halloween too..." she trailed off into and rested her head on Hermione's shoulder as she continued to cry. "It's okay Rose," Hermione said softly. "You're not being ungrateful at all. You've had some harsh stuff happen to you; you have every right to be sad about it. Come on, let's go back to the common room. The couches are more comfy than this hard stone." At her friend's aghast expression, Hermione explained, "Don't worry; the common room was empty when I left to come look for you."

Hermione helped Rose to her feet, and with Rose's arm over her shoulder, Hermione carried her into the common room and set her down on a comfy couch, then sat down next to her. Tiredly, Rose lay down with her head on Hermione's lap and wiped away her tears." Have I ever told you how great a friend you are?" Rose asked with a small smile as she gazed up at Hermione's face then closed her eyes. "Because I couldn't ask for one better. You so smart, you help me out all the time, you're so nice too..." Rose trailed off and the two girls just sat there in silence, Rose staring up at the ceiling, and Hermione looking do at her friend.

Hermione was extremely grateful that Rose was looking somewhere other than her when she told her how good of a friend she was, because Hermione was blushing like crazy. How could your face be any color than that of a ripe tomato when your crush was laying with their head in your lap, telling you how great you were and how much they appreciated you. If Rose weren't a girl, Hermione would have thought she was hitting on her. This position also gave Hermione a great look at Rose's toned body from playing quidditch, with her chest rising and falling slowly with each breath and her long, wavy black hair spread out across the couch and Hermione's lap.

That's right, Hermione Granger had a crush on her female best friend of over three years. It was in her third year at Hogwarts that Hermione had realized that men were not attractive to her at all, and that she instead found women pleasing to the eye. At first, she thought that she must be some sort of freak, even among wizards who were already freaks in the eyes of many. She became extremely depressed, and started to pull away from her friends. That was the lowest point in her young life, with Slytherin's monster hunting for muggle born students and thinking that she was some sort of freak because of who she found attractive.

Her parents had noticed that she was extremely depressed over the winter holiday, and as she was an only child, she had no where to hide from them. Eventually, she became so tired of her parents' pleas to know why she was so sad, and told them that she was a freak. At first her parents thought she was having second thoughts about magic and being a witch, and in her haste to convince them that she loved magic and wanted to stay at Hogwarts, she revealed her deepest secret, that she liked women.

Her parents rushed to console her and to tell her that there was nothing wrong with her, and that it was generally accepted in society, even if they knew nothing about how it was perceived in the magical world. It took her almost all of Christmas vacation and all of her parents' efforts, but by the time she went back to Hogwarts, Hermione was back to her normal self.

But by the end of the year, she had another problem; she was falling for her best friend. While rescuing Sirius, the two went through some tough situations together. Rose demonstrated her courage, her skills, and above all, her dedication to protect Hermione. Riding together on Buckbeak is where she finally realized it. She was in front, scared to death as the ground rushed beneath her. Rose was behind her, holding her tightly to comfort Hermione and mitigate her fear of heights.

When they landed, Hermione could not look at Rose for almost an hour, because her face was bright red. Whenever she thought about her best friend in the next day, she blushed and remembered the feeling of their bodies pressed together. Even now, the pleasant memory brought a touch of red to her face. In fact, that was now the memory Hermione used to cast the patronus spell Rose had shared with her during that year.

It had been hard on Hermione to keep something so important as a secret. The two were normally so open about everything that it pained her to have to keep this hidden. But she was still deathly afraid that is Rose learned of her proclivities, she would think she was a freak and stop being her friend.

But for now, Hermione was just happy to sit on the couch, with her crush on her lap and enjoy the moment. She knew she might not get a moment like this again, so she decided to just not worry about anything for a change.

Eventually, Rose fell asleep, and Hermione did not want to spend the night in the common room, even if it was with Rose. So she delicately carried Rose back up to their shared dorm. By this point, all the other girls had already fallen asleep, so there was no one to see Hermione carrying the sleeping girl. Se set Rose on her bed and pulled off her shoes. Just before closing the blinds, Hermione gazed at her serene face and did what she had longed to do; she kissed her.

Just a little quick kiss on the cheek, but it was something. "Good night Rose. If only I could do this when you were awake," Hermione said softly before closing the curtain around the bed and settling into her own bed and her own pleasant dreams.

AN: Thanks for reading and please review. This is just something I churned out in a night with another night for revision, so expect future chapter to be longer and better. Also, if you're wondering about the name, check out this page: /Main/ForWantOfANail However, I won't explain all the little changes as that would be rather boring.

-0623


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